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Modern Times

'Modern Times', starring, written and directed by Charlie Chaplin examines cultural and social elements present in the 1930s. In the film a focal point of this examination and critique is Western materialism. The feeding machine scene exemplifies this, with allusions and metaphors that critique the utopian "American Dream", consumerism, and the destruction of value in the pursuit of quantity.

The topic of food plays a significant role in Chaplin's film as it represents an important factor of the domestic bliss that is the "American Dream". In the feeding machine scene, the notion of food and eating as being an enjoyable act is completely ruled out when Chaplin is force-fed by a machine whilst he works. Due to the aggressive nature of the machine's malfunction, it's almost as if Chaplin is being attacked, the complete opposite to the enjoyment one would usually experience when having a meal. The feeding machine is a prime example of the modern times which were detaching people from their initial pleasures. Food is commonly eaten whilst sitting, in an almost formal setting although with the use of the machine, Chaplin comments on the urgency of his society and how homely values are losing there resonance.

Chaplin's subversion of these conventions achieves a critique of traditional understandings of materials, ownership and "pleasure". The fact that these conventions relate to eating, a basic and essential human function works to distance humanity and nature from the world that surrounds Chaplin in the 1930s, and the utopian "American Dream", as such, is shown to be quite dystopic in reality. How Chaplin treats food in this instance is reinforced by the dysfunction of the machine that feeds Chaplin, furthermore, is a symbol for the over reliance not only on technology, but also on governmental and authority's processes, a metaphorical "machine".

When the Gamine steals bananas (deemed a delicacy) and shares them around with those around...

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...ModernTimes (1936)
directed by Charles Chaplin
Plot Summary
The little tramp works in a futuristic factory tightening bolts that pass by on a conveyor belt. One day he has a nervous breakdown from the stress of his job and creates chaos in the plant before being carted off. Recovered from this episode, he is wrongfully jailed as the leader of a riot. After having an enjoyable prison stay, he is released but finds life on the outside difficult. He tries to get thrown back in prison by taking the blame for an orphaned gamine who was caught stealing some bread. However, the two wind up living together in a run-down shack, and the tramp goes back to work at a factory as a mechanic's assistant. But the factory closes down because of a strike, and the tramp is again incorrectly held for attacking a policeman in a riot. When he gets out of jail, the gamine has found a job in a cafe with singing waiters and promises to get him one too. The tramp fails miserably as a waiter but succeeds in entertaining the customers, and it looks like the two have found steady employment. However, orphanage authorities arrive and try to take the gamine away, but she escapes with the tramp. The final sequence shows the two wandering along a desolate road. The gamine starts to cry, but the tramp encourages her not to give up. They start their journey together, walking down the road toward the horizon.
Commentary
Charles Chaplin’s Modern...

...culture. One such example can be seen in the work of Charlie Chaplin, specifically his film “ModernTimes”. The wisely constructed scenes of this film portrayed Chaplin’s opinions of the period’s prominent management styles. The production elements of the workshop scene, in particular, display Chaplin’s criticism of classical management ideas of specialization, standardization, replaceability and centralization.
At the time this film was made the U.S. was trapped in an economic slump that lead to high unemployment and dwindling corporate earnings. With these economic hardships came an unrelenting obsession with saving time and money as a means to raise profit. Industry leaders and business owners began turning to the ever-enlightened minds of scientist for help with profitability. During this period the strong consensus was that math and science would solve every problem humans faced. Scientists were making rapid advances in many fields, including efficiency of labor. Unfortunately for the humans within the labor force, this “Scientific Age” and scientific view lead to great injustices. Science minds like Fredrick Taylor began to suggest that employees be managed as mechanized entities, not as humans. Managers and CEO’s accepted the suggestion of classical management theorists and placed these proposals to work in their factories, just as in the scene from “ModernTimes”....

...released, the lack of "talking" in ModernTimes (1936) seems to suggest Chaplin was against technology. This was not true. Chaplin was against the exploitation of human beings, but he embraced technology. His film uses many visual "special effects" and a synchronized musical score that could not have been possible without technology. By using visual effects coupled with an accompanying musical score and wildly expressive body language, Chaplin allows the audience to think, feel, and hope with the characters while still preserving his character's silence. Keeping the Tramp's silence affords each of his audience-the dullard, the intelligent, the wise- the opportunity to form his own interpretation. Even in the final scene where the Tramp gives up his silence, Chaplin refrains from using understandable dialogue to keep his audience's autonomy in interpreting the performance. His voice is finally heard, however- marking the end of the Tramp-Silence era, and the death of Chaplin as an actor in silent film.
Chaplin uses cinematography to exaggerate specific ideas or draw attention to specific situations. In the beginning of the Factory Scene, the audience is shown a clock approaching 6 o'clock. The image cuts to an overhead shot of a throng of white sheep and one black sheep which dissolves into an overhead shot of workers rushing to work. Regardless of each member of the audience's interpretation of what these images mean, the importance of...

...Moderntimes
How is Chaplin’s film and allegory
Charlie Chaplin’s film “ModernTimes” is an allegory satirizing the society of the
1930’s. In his film he uses many examples of symbolism, using one object or event to express a hidden meaning. The movie uses these hidden meanings to show that during this time industry was taking over humanity.
The opening of the movie is a shot of a large clock expanding the entire screen. The symbolism is obvious. The people of the world are controlled by mechanically measured time, the tyranny of the clock. Another use of symbolism is used as crowd of people flood out of a subway station. This idea is accentuated by the shot of sheep running and out of all of these animals there is one black sheep. This is alluding to the fact that one character will go against the grain.
When one watches the scene of “the Tramp” working endlessly in a machine run factory the message is clear. People in this age have become part of the machinery. This is also shown when the automated food tray is tested on Chaplin’s character. The tray locks Charlie in and feeds him as he works. In the end it malfunctions to a humorous note but the point is that businesses are dehumanizing their workers.
During the 1930’s the depression was hitting hard. Chaplin portrays just how bad it was in his jail scene. After stopping some escaping inmates at the jail he is...

...Nhil B
BYUH
Charlie Chaplin’s ModernTimes
Being told that we were going to watch a 1936 Charlie Chaplin movie made me excited. I have never seen any of his films so I did not know what to expect. Seeing the movie title as “ModernTimes”, however, made me think that the film is about the lives of the people during the Great Depression. As it turned out, I was correct. But aside from showing the concerns and difficulties of those who lived during a severe economic depression, the film also shows how modernization in society affects the people. What is more interesting, though, is how even more than half a century later, Chaplin’s film still mirrors the influence of modernization on the lives of many people and the world they live in.
Chaplin allows his viewers to understand the effect of modernization in the workplace through several scenes. One example is when an inventor makes his character, the Little Tramp, as a subject to present a “modern” feeding machine. In that scene, Chaplin shows how eager people are in the moderntime— or at least in their moderntime in 1936— to make workers do their job faster that they will venture to reform the normal way of eating during lunch break. Chaplin also shows that people are so absorbed in recreating and inventing things to achieve efficiency in what they do. One can say that this constant...

...ModernTimes by Charlie Chaplin is a movie set in the 1930s, during the Great Depression era. The movie starred Charlie Chaplin as the famous Little Tramp and his life’s journey during this era. From factory worker under proletarian control to convict to entertainer at a restaurant, Chaplin had depicted the life of millions of people during the Great Depression as he struggles with overwhelming obstacles. With the help of costar Paulette Goddard as the Gamin, they ultimately proved the hardship of unemployment, poverty and hunger that millions of people had actually endured years ago in America. Chaplin did a very well job conveying a message with his acting skills but it was the silence in which this movie brought that captured the essence of what everything was about.
Charlie Chaplin chose to film this movie in silence because it represented all of the common people during the Great Depression era and how they were never heard. Whether they are factory workers, or convicts, just like the Little Tramp was, they weren’t important enough to have a voice. They had no purpose to have a voice because they weren’t rich or in charge of a big corporation. They were just one in a millions of other struggling people during the Depression. If they didn’t like the way they were being treated, they can be easily replaced, no questions asked because a lot of people craved for a job. Towards three quarters of the movie, the Little Tramp wanted to get...

...The key storyline of the film ModernTimes revolves around the two characters, a factory worker and street rogue, played by Charlie Chaplin and Goddard respectively, who fall short to take part into the modern and mechanized world.
There were several themes clearly emphasized in the beginning of the film; the workers are portrayed as mere followers, no distinctiveness, merely considered as moving parts in the economic system. The two main characters were seen as being non-conformant. Time as shown in the beginning clearly shows that every second counts, reflective of the firm and stern timetable or schedule kept within the factory which was to become part of the business world, as 'Time is money'. This is an important theme depicted throughout the film, for the lines of production within the factory in which Chaplin works keeps being fastened every now and then so as in competition with the other factories. The task of Chaplin tightening nuts on the conveyor belt continuously moving swiftly is an essential part relaying an important message of how the overall welfare and speed of production and business had become more important than the workers or the employees. Even their lunchtimes were shortened and even an introduction of an absurd machine brought into the factory by a keen salesman, the goal of which is to let the workers have their lunch without them having to stop working on the conveyor belt,...

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Jarret Clark
Professor Lange
ModernTimes Analysis
2/9/2015
ModernTimes is a 1936 comedy starring Charlie Chaplin. Much like a lot of Chaplin’s work, the film walks a fine line between slapstick comedy and satire, as well as painting a social economic picture for American society during the 1930’s. The purpose of this paper is to provide specific scenes in the film clip that relates to classical management theories discussed in the textbook.
One organizational theme for all three men in chapter two was the idea of forming workers and being able to predict and control them. In the clip when Charlie goes to the bathroom to light up a cigarette, a man on a big television screen pops up and tells him to get back to work. This is an example of how humanity is forced to give into the idea of the working to support a dream and the pursuit of happiness. This theme of technology enslaving man is also shown in the way the men at the conveyor belt work. At the pace of the machines, a pace that goes faster and faster multiple times to add some humor.
Chaplin uses humor to better criticize the misuse of a man by a more powerful man. Taylor’s idea of communication dealt with the idea of a hierarchy and commands flowing down from the top. (Modaff, 32) The boss of the company requires stupid work speed, and has no consideration of the physical and mental health of his workers. The boss never addresses...